- Joined
- Oct 19, 2005
- Messages
- 18,978
While hunting up hemi heads Harley vs Norton, stumbled on this
early engine discovery era history. WestLake head developer with Harry Richard as his race bike tuner to boot! A short teaser below
http://thevintagent.blogspot.com/2010/0 ... swirl.html
In a curious side note, while Vandervell was a Board member at Nortons, he 'took' Kusmicki's design for the four-cylinder, watercooled DOHC racing 500cc Norton engine with him when he left the Board, during the A.M.C. takeover of Norton in 1955. This design was expanded and used in one of Vanwall F1 cars.... so in effect, the legendary 4-cyl Norton engine WAS built, only in a 2.5 liter form.
early engine discovery era history. WestLake head developer with Harry Richard as his race bike tuner to boot! A short teaser below
http://thevintagent.blogspot.com/2010/0 ... swirl.html
In a curious side note, while Vandervell was a Board member at Nortons, he 'took' Kusmicki's design for the four-cylinder, watercooled DOHC racing 500cc Norton engine with him when he left the Board, during the A.M.C. takeover of Norton in 1955. This design was expanded and used in one of Vanwall F1 cars.... so in effect, the legendary 4-cyl Norton engine WAS built, only in a 2.5 liter form.